Archive for September, 2005

Issues of interest:
- Road traffic controls
- Road traffic problems (potholes, etc.)
- Fuel efficiency
A bug tracking system (BTS) for city work is a concept I've considered.
Citizens could then file "bugs" and various departments could manage
them. In the absence of the willingness of employees, volunteers could
do the work.
- Logistics of the transport of goods (could be more efficient)
Lots of empty trucks and train cars travel around on a regular basis.
Encouraging the use of local goods can decrease pollution, improve local
economies, make regions independent, and increase the quality of goods.
Local food and other perishables are generally in better condition if
they have to spend less time travelling.
Margins on goods from chain stores might be higher than the cost benefit
they gain through Economies of Scale.
- Regulation of household cleaners
In workplaces the Workplace Hazardis Material Information System (WHMIS)
requires that material data sheets be available for each cleaner or
hazardis material. On the sheet is a list of chemical ingredients, their
hazards, symptoms of hazards, and first aid.
- Airline regulations
On PBS I saw an episode of NOVA about an investigation into an airline
crash (Swiss Air 111?). In it they said that there were some
recommendations for industry regulations that were never implemented.
Some were as simple as requiring smoke detectors.
- Deregulating travel
Most airports say to arrive an hour early. While a large part of the
delay is due to the airlines, security delays are long. Security at
airports is a good idea, but the methods, purposes and other aspects
need to be evaluated. Not allowing a nail file through, but having other
such things for sale on the other side doesn't make much sense. Even if
the area past security were to be restricted, one should consider the
people sped through (e.g. workers and frequent travellers). Also other
items should be considered including the same kind of items as a prison
does (e.g. anything that can be made into a "shiv"). Even this much
restriction won't keep all possibilities of malicious intent "in check" as
employees in the industry must have access to dangerous things
including equipment for maintenance, fuelling, cargo handling, and the
air planes themselves must be kept available. As Bruce Schnider has said,
better security would be people trained to look for suspicious activity.
- Preventing insecure national ID cards
Bruce Schnider probably has a good number of articles talking about how
getting someone's ID doesn't prove that they're a criminal or not. It
may not even be a reliable way to get any statistics on a person unless
the people in charge of the ID have the proper policies in place to
insure the completeness, accuracy and integrity of such information is
insured.
Originally From: http://www.boxheap.net/ddaniels/notes/20050903.txt